The Peddlers are fascinating: superb Hammond organ trio jazz, mostly with vocals, and – much to my delight – bass. They are in a strange hinterland of their era, part easy-listening, part hipster jazz-bos, but all round totally cool! The album title is naff, granted. But actually, in this instance, it’s also fair enough.
The material ranges from exactly what you’d expect of a showbiz group working the circuit, gigging regularly in clubs of the time, ranging from things like Comin’ Home, Baby, and pop hits of the day, such as Nine Miles High, to jazz standards – this comp’ starts with Time After Time, which Teresa and i love from the Chet Baker version – and even a few originals, e.g. the moody after-hours Empty Club Blues.
Jazz style organ trios often made do without bassists, the keys player taking that job over, via pedals. Unless this is done by an absolute master – and don’t get me wrong, The Peddlers keys man is a master – I prefer to have an actual dedicated bassist, looking after the bottom end.
The Peddlers had Tab Martin, who played his electric bass held upright in his lap, almost as if he were playing an upright acoustic bass. At the organ, and singing, was Roy Phillips, a cat so hep it hurts. His voice is superb, if rather of its time. And his instrumental skills are absolutely top-notch.
As a drummer, however, it was a drummer pal – thanks, Ian Croft! – sharing a YouTube video clip of these guys playing live, in which drummer Trevor Morais absolutely slays an uptempo jazz number, bringing an unbelievable energy to proceedings, that brought me back to The Peddlers (I already had the Suite album, which is them plus the London Philharmonic).
And I’m soooo glad! This collection isn’t complete, but gathers together 42 tracks, 21 per disc, into one very nice set. From the slow blues shuffle of Little Red Rooster, to the unusual Where Have All The Flowers Gone (unusual for morphing from a full-on trio instrumental into a mellow song, with Phillips’ vocal accompanied mostly by gentle acoustic guitar!), girlie b-vocs on That’s Life, and lush strings and more on Girl Talk, this is an incredibly rich and diverse collection, capturing a terrific trio in full and majestic flight, and a bygone era of music, whose genre-bending breadth is a real freath of bresh air, so to speak.
